Soccer

One of our new experiences this summer besides adding that whole other family member has been getting Grace started off in the wonderful world of sports.

She started the summer with swim lessons at the YMCA. She is all fish. She would spend all day in the water if she could. She is swimming quite well considering that in June she had forgotten everything from before and decided to be afraid of getting her head wet. She swims well without floaties in the shallow area, and likes to retrieve her "fishies" off the bottom. It was fun watching her progress to being able to get them. First she just used her toes, then she could get them if you shoved her under because she just couldn't overcome her own buoyancy, now she tries to get all four with one dive. The other great thing with spending so much of the summer at the pool was her learning overcome being shy. She became a champ at befriending kids at the pool in order to have some one to play with. She must get that from the Dillender's because I know I was never that good at it.

The second big sporting adventure has been soccer. Grace is a member of the Mullins Monkeys. This has involved Tod somehow getting to be made a coach and now two evenings a week consumed, but it is fun. The first game was the past Friday. It reminded me of the hysterical chaos of watching peewee football where Bob used to play football. It did go much better than I thought it would considering what practices are like.

There is no denying Grace is my child. She was out of the car at the field for oh maybe 45 seconds when she tripped over her own feet and scraped the skin off of one knee. She spent the game alternating between limping and whimpering. She did get out on the field and play some. About like practice, usually miles behind the action with some great moves when she didn't have to fight off the mob to get the ball. The game was a riot. A few Monkeys resorted to falling on top of the ball to keep it away from the other team in an effort not to use their hands. Grace got shoved down and stayed down because she landed on the injured knee. None of the adults on the field realized this so I made a mad dash across the field after the play ended up at the other end with Martha in arms, scooped up Grace with the other arm and ran a circle around the perimeter to get back to our chairs. Then the child asked me why she had to come off the field. Mr. Tod (his official coaching title) explained that if you are going to sit down you can't stay in the game. At least we weren't the parent's of the Monkey that put an opposing player in a headlock after the ball was stripped away from him. Grace did have fun even if she won't admit it.



Don't worry, I like them short.